Page 113 of Losing the Rhythm

Seth wasn’t convinced, looking at me instead.

I smiled. “Yeah, just talking.”

Seth looked between the two of us before sitting back down, not looking the least bit convinced.

George and Justin came back, passing drinks and snacks out to everyone. Everyone talked more about the game as we waited.

I stared down at the field, trying to become familiar with the setup. Where the teams would be sitting, where the fans were. I searched for familiar faces in the crowd and found some.

Even found the Wright twins as one was snapping pictures of the crowd and the field.

Cheerleaders came running out, driving the crowd wild. We all rose to our feet to cheer for our team as they entered. It took me a little bit to find Paxon in the crowd of boys. He was grinning as big as the rest of his team as they went to the area in front of us and began planning and doing warm ups.

I didn’t keep my eyes off Paxon, liking how he looked in his uniform. His hair was free from the beanies he usually wore. He was doing some sprinting back and forth in the area in front of him. He’d start low and then as the line of boys were told to go, he’d burst forward and shoot to the other end.

The longer they warmed up, the more the smile slipped into an expression filled with determination. All of them began looking more and more determined, donning on their game faces as the match got closer to starting.

Once the game began, I leaned forward, trying to keep an eye on Paxon, but it was so easy to lose him in all the action.

“They seem evenly matched,” I said as the other team blocked the kick into the goal and the ball was about to be run back down to the other end of the field.

“They are,” Justin said.

I jumped, only now realizing he had moved next to me at some point.

“Their games usually go neck and neck.”

“Oh.” One of Paxon’s teammates was able to steal the ball.

The crowd went wild, chanting something I wasn’t able to make out with how booming it was. Whatever it was though, seemed to invigorate the player and everyone jumped to their feet. I could only hear, “go, go, go,” now as everyone chanted it in tandem with a foot stomp.

The players passed the ball around. Even Paxon had it at one point. Then one of them kicked the ball. The goalie went to block and missed.

My ear drums nearly burst with how wild our side went with the goal.

The game went like that, back and forth, goals made, goals blocked. We were barely staying ahead, but there was no telling when that’d change.

Paxon was in the middle of moving the ball down the field when suddenly it looked like a tangle of limbs.

“What happened?” I jumped to my feet, squinting.

“I think someone tripped,” Justin said.

The players quickly got back to their feet, Paxon at the bottom. He jumped to his feet and snapped something at one of his players.

Benji jogged over and said something. I couldn’t see expressions well, but I could tell Paxon’s got really dark. Benji had been a thorn in my side so I could guess in what direction the conversation was going.

Benji said something else. Then Paxon took a swing at his teammate.

Hell on the field broke out as his whole team surged forward and separated the two. The referees were blowing whistles and calling out fouls and waving flags I didn’t understand.

All I knew was that once they cleared it up, Paxon and Benji were removed from the field.

“I want to go down there,” I said, gnawing at my lip as something dark settled in the pit of my stomach.

Why would he do that in the middle of a game? Paxon knew better.

“Let’s go.” Justin’s voice was dark.

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